The veteran broadcaster comes face to face with the Cosa Nostra.
Sir Trevor McDonald hosts a two-part documentary on the Mafia starting on Monday night and ITV, and has spoken about how the organisation if far from the glamorous outfit portrayed in the likes of GoodFellas and The Sopranos.
The 75-year-old says that the “unspeakable crimes” of the syndicates made his blood run cold, despite years covering psychopaths, despots and serial killers as part of his role as a celebrated journalist.
“They committed unspeakable crimes,” he told The Mirror.
“Yet these people describe what they did bluntly and with a touch of bizarre humour.
“I really think these shows capture the raw brutality of life in the Mafia, not the glamorised Hollywood version we see in films like GoodFellas.”
In the first episode on Monday night, McDonald meets John Alite, a notorious enforcer for John Gotti Sr. in the 1980s and 1990s.
He also chats with Michael DiLeonardo, brilliantly known as Mikey Scars, who is still in fear for his life after testifying against the Gambino crime family and securing 80 successful convictions.
“There’s all this mumbo jumbo about the Mafia being an entirely secret organisation,” added McDonald. “But this supposedly loyal family didn’t look after their own and broke its codes.”
